Aldermen treated Mayor Rahm Emanuel's pick for police superintendent with kid gloves Tuesday, calling on Eddie Johnson to improve the department's connection with the community after voting to waive the rules to let him immediately remove the "interim" tag from his title.

As Chicago heads into what traditionally are its most violent months of the year, the City Council Public Safety Committee recommended approval of an ordinance granting Emanuel the right to name Johnson police superintendent without making him go through a second top cop search. It's an acknowledgment that the veteran police official is a foregone conclusion to take over the scandal-plagued department.

"People are dying in our neighborhoods, and folks are killing people in our neighborhoods, and right now, we have the morale of the Police Department, they're saying police aren't doing anything, they're not doing their jobs because morale is down," said 27th Ward Ald. Walter Burnett Jr., speaking in favor of giving the mayor authority to expedite his appointment of Johnson. "And we need the morale up, and we have somebody that they respect right now, that they work for, willing to work for."

Some aldermen expressed reservations about allowing Johnson to skip the vetting and background check by the city Police Board that usually precedes a mayor picking a superintendent. Emanuel declined to nominate any of three finalists the board picked last month, instead tapping Johnson.

"I think in this day and age in the city of Chicago, what we're going through right now, I think to be open and transparent and clear, and the public knows what the process is, is the right thing to do," said Ald. Patrick Daley Thompson, 11th. "And I think we should allow interim Superintendent Johnson to continue as interim superintendent, put his credentials forward."

But Thompson, who at one point said he had to step out of the hearing to take a call from his police commander about "another shooting in my ward this afternoon," was the only vote against allowing the mayor to skip the usual procedure and simply name Johnson.

The Chicago Police Department expects to receive a shipment of more than 450 body cameras, which will be worn by officers in some of the most gang-plagued areas of the city in addition to the department's top brass starting this spring, city officials announced Sunday.

After being trained, officers...

The hearing was the culmination of weeks of unusually demonstrative calls by aldermen for Emanuel to allow them to play a bigger part in the process of selecting the new superintendent. Black and Latino aldermen in particular stepped into the vacuum created by the mayor's perceived political weakness after the Laquan McDonald shooting video was released to assert their right to have a say in who would set the crime-fighting strategy for their violence-plagued neighborhoods.

But the heads of the council's Black and Latino caucuses greeted the mayor's pick of Johnson with enthusiasm, saying the African-American Police Department veteran met their most important criteria. That lack of dissent lent Tuesday's proceedings an air of theatricality as council members took the opportunity to press Johnson on his plans and qualifications, even though his support from the full council on Wednesday was all but preordained.

Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd, reminded the interim superintendent that he had pledged to beef up patrols in city parks, an initiative Johnson has promised to put in place.

City code currently requires the mayor to appoint the police superintendent from a...

Ald. Jason Ervin, 28th, called on Johnson to work to find ways to reduce crime in the handful of the city's most violent districts. And Ald. Ricardo Munoz, 22nd, said Johnson needs to address a fundamental, long-term shortage in police manpower.

Aldermen also repeatedly asked for greater cooperation between police and their residents to deal with the specific crime problems in their neighborhoods. But much of Johnson's long question-and-answer session Tuesday consisted of aldermen singing his praises.

"Good luck to you, you have my full support, you have my number if you need me for anything and I really look forward to working with you," said Ald. Nicholas Sposato, 38th.

The City Council almost always starts out in a Champagne-and-roses relationship with the new police superintendent. When Emanuel selected outsider Garry McCarthy to run the department in 2011, many aldermen heaped praise on the choice. That connection had soured by the time Emanuel fired McCarthy late last year amid widespread criticism over the city's handling of the McDonald shooting investigation and its fallout.

Police superintendent is considered one of the mayor's most crucial appointments. Emanuel's decision to ignore the normal procedure and pick Johnson at a time violence is up in Chicago, police morale is down and public trust of the department is at a low point means that maxim is particularly true this time.

The high stakes were underscored as several aldermen implored Johnson to do something about the seemingly intractable violence in their communities.

"I want to help the community, but if we have to deal with violence every day, with shooting every day, the gang wars and drugs, the guns, the kids being afraid to walk to school, I'm going to tell you we can't take it no longer. Something has to change," said Ald. Emma Mitts, 37th. "And I'm putting all my marbles on you right now."

Asked afterward how he thought alderman had treated him in the four-hour hearing, Johnson responded, “It went fairly well, I thought.

“I've been getting overwhelming support from, not just the elected officials, but the citizens of Chicago,” he said. “It's actually going to take all of us together to improve the situation here.”

A version of this article appeared in print on April 13, 2016, in the News section of the Chicago Tribune with the headline "Aldermen take it easy on top cop pick - Panel backs plan to let Emanuel bypass a second search" —
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